Monday, November 16, 2009

Cusco-Puno_-quasi Tacna

Can't find the name of this little town now...my GPS is dead...well that's a bummer but not the real reason why I don't have the info. Just too lazy to go back to the room again and get the map out...and yes here it is an other time that the wi-fi works only in a remote corner or two of the hotel...and this time it even took us an hour to find out just how to connect...Oh well, enough with the laments!We rode from Cuzco to Puno on lake Titicaca...a nice ride, but at the end we were welcomed by frozen rain, quite a few iced painful pebbles and freezing wind on a very slippery muddy part of road...fun. Not.Grey, cold, not so exciting...plus I started having bad respiration problems with the altitude ( 3,800m)...karl too but less(and his salmonella seems under control).So this morning we decide to leave early... and to brave a possibly short cut on a 80 km dirt road from Llave to Maze in direction of Tacna and the Chilean border.The dirt road was awesome! The rocks, the river, the birds in little pristine ponds, everything was so wild and beautiful! Except my front fearing started to get loose (same thing happend to K long time ago)because I lost one of the two too short bolts that hold it. ( we should write to Suzuki, but hey! if the complaints are just this we are lucky...actually I really things the bikes are holding great!)Then we got back on the pavement and the road kept going up and up to 4,800 m. Almost 15,000'... well my breathing was getting worse , my head was throbbing and I really wasn't feeling so good... but the road was so incredible! Twisties and twisties and perfectly paved and surrounded by gorgeous mountains! A joy! Karl was in heaven! Got a new bolt, don't know what to do with my dead GPS...got an iboprufen and breathing again...tomorrow is an other day!